Subject: Cygwin, XP, and copying files and folders from a CD
From: <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 16:21:17 +0100

Cygwin 1.3.22; Windows XP Pro :
Permissions, attributes and writeability

I copied files and folders to a Cygwin directory from a CD using commands of
the style

    cp -vr /cygdrive/e/{whatever1} /{whatever2}

from within Cygwin. Attempts then to create executables within the directory
structure /{whatever2} failed, due (I think) to the folder permissions which
were of the form dr-xr-xr-x rather than drwxr-xr-x. In Windows language, the
directories copied from the CD were marked +R. (So were the copied files,
though this in itself would not frustrate the attempts to create the
executables.)

Question 1 : Presuming this to be a common enough problem in XP, is there a
further switch that can be attached to a cp instruction to strip the +R
attribute from files and directories copied from a CD? Or, instead of cp,
can anybody with experience recommend using the command install?

Question 2 : I decided to delete Cygwin from the machine entirely by (a)
umount -A, (b) deleting all mention of *cyg* from the registry (c) finally
deleting c:\Cygwin and below. Part (c) failed! Even though all files and
folder attributes are -R-A-S-H, in the Windows sense, something is stopping
me getting rid of all of them (access denied). (Many files and folders have
successfully been deleted: I am talking about a stubborn residue.) Any ideas
what?

Comment: I had just about understood the mapping between Cygwin permissions
and Windows attributes in W98, and was putting up with the ludicrous
Microsoft-imposed limitations on filenames. Then I "upgraded" to XP, and,
omigod, how bitterly I regret it. I seem to have added complication and
complexity with no matching advantage gained in utility. Either in the
Windows sense, or in Cygwin. Many (if not most?) of us are single users on
single-user machines. What's all this about Administrators and User Profiles
and all that sort of thing, then? Over Goodness knows how many years,
Microsoft would surely have been better employed dreaming up a proper
52-letter filesystem. I applaud you developer-guys, I really do, for taking
on this monstrous and grotesque family of Operating Systems and, apparently,
winning.

Fergus

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